The movie starts in the operating room with two surgeons trying to save the life of a dying person. The older surgeon goes by the books and is a stickler for the rules, while the younger surgeon, also the son of the older surgeon, is a hot shot doctor willing to take risks and experiment at the expense of the living. And when the older surgeon fails to come through and save their patient’s life, the young hot shot named Dr. Bill Cortner saves the day with a risky maneuver never before attempted.
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is a story about the cocky Dr. Bill Cortner, a man who’s willing to play god, and a man who is willing to re-animate dead things, if you will. In fact, this Dr. Cortner played by a conveniently named Herbert Evers is quite similar to Dr. Herbet West that we see in the Re-Animator series. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s, “Herbert West—Reanimator” story written in 1922.
"Now we just add some vegetables and baste it for an hour or so."
Through-out the movie we are given many glimpses of Dr. Cortner’s fascination with bringing dead things to life. In the beginning his father tells him that he ought to stop stealing body parts from the morgue, since the hospital staff was becoming suspicious. Also, he consistently tells people of his desire for medical science to have the ability to transplant body parts successfully, which is quite the visionary statement since at the time of the film’s making, only corneas and kidneys had been successfully transplanted.
While on a speedy drive with his fiancee, in a rush to get back to his secret laboratory in the countryside, Dr. Cortner crashes his car into a ditch, decapitating his poor lovely girlfriend’s head. A head which he readily scoops up and brings back to his lab so that he may save his bodiless bride to be.
"Did I ever tell you that you have a body... to die for..."
On second thought, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is probably more akin to Bride of Re-Animator, since his motivation is to now transplant fiancee Jan Compton or “Jan in the Pan’s” head onto another woman’s body, using his special serum. But where does he get a woman’s body from? Well easy, you just go out and seduce find one with the help of a roofie colatta refreshing cocktail.
However, unbeknownst to Cortner, the special serum has given Jan’s head the ability to psychopathically communicate with a mutated monster (one of Cortner’s previous experiments gone wrong) that is locked in the closet of the laboratory. And there is nothing that Jan’s head wants more but to die than to live life as a freak, thus her desire to enact revenge on our god like doctor.
"Anyone got an Advil? My head feels like it's in a vice..."
I must say that while this classic horror movie was a bit cheesy, it was most certainly entertaining, much like the Re-Animator series, though Dr. Cortner is nowhere as cooky or funny as Herbert West. In addition, the build up to finally getting to see the monster in the closet at the end is well worth the wait. Though I imagine the raciness and special effects of the film were a bit much for the time, which is probably why the movie wasn’t released until 1962 when it was actually made in 1959.
On the 50 Classic Horror Movies pack rating scale, I give The Brain That Wouldn’t Die a solid “B+” for good entertainment, good special effects (for the early 60s) and it’s commitment to medical science.
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This is definitely one wacky but fun movie. Love how our enterprising surgeon visits a strip joint to choose a new body – you wonder who thought that up. There’s also the similar film called THE HEAD, which was a European production that came out around the same time (1959-60) as THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE, and also features a strip-joint jaunt to choose a new body for a stray head. How did 2 separate films on 2 different continents come up with the same idea? (something in the drinking water at the time?) Enjoyed your post!
Cool, I wasn’t aware of the other film called, The Head, but that’s definitely interesting that they came out the same time. What’s even more interesting is that the end title screen of “The Brain that wouldn’t Die,” showed a title of “The Head that Wouldn’t Die,” so I’m wondering if there is some connection there.